Obama calls Clinton one of the nation's greatest secretaries of state

CBS is touting some of the highlights of this Sunday night’s “60 Minutes” interview with President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a rare side-by-side sit-down with the two former rivals.

The president tells “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Kroft that Mrs. Clinton is “one of the finest secretaries of state we’ve had.”

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Mr. Obama’s biggest obstacle to the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 2008 was Mrs. Clinton, but the two have since become close allies, he said.

“It has been a great collaboration over the last four years. I’m going to miss her, wish she was sticking around, but she has logged in so many miles I can’t begrudge her wanting to take it easy for a little bit. But I want the country to appreciate what an extraordinary role she’s played during the course of my administration. A lot of the successes we’ve had internationally have been because of her hard work,” he said.

Mrs. Clinton, who is stepping down as secretary of state amid much speculation that she will run for Mr. Obama’s job in 2016, noted that her partnership with the president seems “improbable.”

“One of the things that I say to people, because I think it helps them understand, I say, look, in politics and in democracy, sometimes you win elections and sometimes you lose elections. And I worked very hard, but I lost. And then President Obama asked me to be secretary of state, and I said yes. And why did he ask me and why did I say yes? Because we both love our country,” she said.

Question of the Day

Whose side of the story do you believe?

About the Author

David Eldridge joined The Washington Times in 1999 and over the next seven years helped lead the paper’s coverage of regional politics and government, Sept. 11, and the sniper attacks of 2002. In 2006, he was named managing editor of the paper’s website before moving on to editing and reporting stints at Roll Call, the Hill and InsideSources. He returned ...